In today’s WSJ, Nick Schulz writes about the problem employers face in hiring competent and reliable workers. The problem is not, he argues, that young people lack education (that is, formal coursework, diplomas, and degrees), but that they lack far more basic attributes. They can’t communicate properly, don’t have a good work ethic, and lack discipline.

Generations back — before “progressive” education theory took hold — schooling did a lot to build and reinforce the characteristics that made almost every American employable. Now, thanks to the dominance of such notions as the need for school to raise every student’s self-esteem, young people can go through their K–12 years and get a college degree without developing those characteristics at all.